In recent years, many large circulation periodicals have appeared which require rapid handling of portions of the periodicals consisting of signatures which are gathered for binding, trimmed, bundled for minimal shipping costs and shipped. A typical operation utilizes a multitude of packer boxes, each of which receives signatures from a supply, and those signatures are then delivered to a gathering chain or other conveying means by which complete collections of gathered signatures are carried to a location for further processing to complete the binding process. Moreover, because of the need for highly efficient plant operations, there has been a constant effort to increase the speed at which machines operate which has required the development of new techniques for handling the signatures at all stages of the binding process.
In order to achieve these objectives, there have been a variety of attempts to develop an apparatus for feeding the signatures in a shingled stream. Specifically, it is generally known that equipment has been proposed which would hold a large supply of signatures and feed those signatures to a packer box in a stream thus reducing the need for and consequent cost of significant numbers of binding line personnel to continuously supply the packer boxes with signatures. Unfortunately, despite the attempts to achieve such results, there have been a variety of problems that have not to date been fully solved by the various proposals.
In particular, it is generally known that signatures oftentimes are delivered to a binding line in a so-called "signature log." This signature log usually comprises a stack of signatures having boards at opposite ends thereof around which a band or bands are placed to hold the log together for shipment and delivery to a binding line. In many instances, it would be desirable to place the signature log on a stream feeder for delivering the signatures to a packer box.
Currently, it is known that there are several different types of horizontal log feeders of various lengths which are available. These devices typically take up considerable space inasmuch as they are often designed to accept a plurality of such signature logs. Obviously, the need to provide this space is detrimental to the objective of enhancing the efficiency of overall plant operations.
With the horizontal log feeders which have multiple log capacity, it is usually common practice for the last of several logs to remain uncut so as to maintain downstream signature stock in place. The few inadequate attempts to provide a "short" horizontal log feeder have failed inasmuch as a significant number of signatures at the far upstream end of the log typically f all over when the band or bands that hold the log together are cut. As a result, it has remained to provide an apparatus for feeding signatures in a shingled stream from either a loose lift or a single log in a manner that overcomes the problems that are noted in the foregoing.
Thus, the present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the foregoing problems and achieving one or more of the resulting objects.